Day of Paranormal Silence
by XiaoDui
Summary: Danny decides to support some gay rights . . . little did he know that it would be the best choice he'd ever make, second only to the whole Phantom thing.


**Disclaimer:** Don't own Danny Phantom, of course . . .

Dash Baxter watched as one Danny Fenton _finally_ noticed the waving Sam Manson and Tucker Foley.

He'd taken to following the smaller boy around school a little, enough to learn a tidbit about said boy and yet remain unnoticed - well, as unnoticed as the school's 6-foot muscular blonde star jock could be, at any rate. He had several reasons for this odd deviation from his normal behavior.

The first reason, the one he told everyone and was as much an excuse as a reason, was so he could find stuff _to_ bully 'Fenton-ia' about. Two, to find the best times to bully the boy (Dash _never_ drew blood, and '_sometimes_' he cared enough to try to make the beatings more convenient for the bully-ee). Three, he was flat-out bored . . . there was only so much Paulina you could take in a day, and her being his girlfriend meant he normally got more than his share of the general Paulina. Four, the trio of society's 'bottom-feeders' were really rather funny when it came to entertainment, especially during lunch and the dietary fights between Manson and Foley (wisely, Danny kept out of the way of said fights).

The fourth reason he never told _anyone_, and didn't even dare to write down.

Dashiel 'Dash' Baxter, star of the Casper High footbal team, love of Amity Park, dream of all Casper High Females, envy of all Casper High males and unholy terror to all Casper High 'nerds' and 'geeks' and 'misfits' . . . was homosexual.

His fourth reason for following 'that Fenton boy' . . . well . . . Danny _was_ kinda cute . . . and Dash just _might_ have a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy, miniscule crush on the guy . . .

Foley's voice snapped him out of his little reverie. "Hey, man, 'sup?"

Surprisingly, Danny made no response.

. . . wait, what?!

"Uh, D-man, I don't understand sign language, and it's kinda obvious that you _talk_ . . ." Manson's voice was dry, tainted with sarcasm.

Peeking around the corner, Dash's eyes widened slightly.

Danny was dressed in all-black, head-to-toe. Black jeans, a black longsleeve, and a black vest (it may be April, but today the temperatures were in the low 40s). Black fingerless gloves, and even black tennis shoes. Even his _backpack_ was a dark black! The teen's eyes were just _slightly_ lined in black eyeliner, enough to be _there_ but not enough to be quickly noticed - unless you looked as carefully as Dash did, of course. Pinned in plain sight on the chest of the vest, right over his heart, was a thin black ribbon looped like those you saw for people supporting breast cancer.

The boy himself was making signs with his hand, pantomiming something with increasing frustration. His mouth was firmly shut, and he definetely wasn't speaking.

On the other hand, Foley was dressed as usual, looking like he was trying his best to _not_ dissolve into laughter at the sight of his friend waving his arms all over the place. Manson, in her own usual dark clothes, was simply moody and bored as always. Nothing shook the girl - at least, as far as Dash could see.

Giving up iwth a loud sigh, Danny yanked Foley's prized PDA (Dash had learned the name of the device quickly - Foley never seemed to be without it, or stop talking about it) away from the techno-geek. Ignoring Foley's resulting cries of protest, he typed something out on the screen and shoved it in his face.

Startled, Foley read it slowly. " . . . Day of Silence? What's that for?"

More typing.

"Gay rights?!" Foley gasped, and Manson suddenly _cheered_.

Yes, **_cheered_**.

"Yeah! Way to go, Danny! Finally standing up for something other than ghosts, I see! Ah, my boy, you make me proud . . ." The Goth flung an arm around the boy's shoulders, beaming and pretending to wipe a tear from her eye.

Danny's response was to shove her off and pretend to whack her upside the head with the PDA (ignoring further and increased protests form the reliable Foley). Even so, he was grinning, and laughing.

Digging in a pocket of the vest, Danny extracted two pins and two ribbons, similar to his own. He offered them to his friends, who took them and promptly pinned them onto their own shirts.

"There's no way Tuck or I could be silent all day - I'm not sure even _you_ will last - but we'll support anyway." Manson giggled. "C'mon, let's go get you one of those little whiteboards and a marker. I think Principal Ishiyama is handing them out to anyone who's taking the vow and all that."

Danny nodded, laughing as the three of them fell into step and entering the school as the warning bell rang.

* * *

Dash grabbed Danny's arm when he closed his locker at the end of the day, whirling the boy around and pressing him back against the lockers.

About a third of the student body had shown up that day in some form of black, and about three-quarters of that third had done the vow of silence. Sadly, over half of those who had taken the vow spoke at some point, then gave up their attempt. Only a select few had managed to keep the vow.

Those who had the pins and ribbons had pinned and ribboned nearly the other two-thirds that hadn't shown up in black; even _Paulina_ was sporting one (she hadn't been happy about it either, until Dash hinted that he thought it was a good idea - by the end of the day, she'd been wearing twenty, specifically pinned in the shape of Phantom's emblem).

The Ghost-Boy himself was even supporting gay rights, and no one had to hand _him_ a pin and ribbon. His normal jumpsuit was gone, replaced by an all-black copy. He'd beaten Paulina to the punch though, and his emblem had appeared in the form of black ribbons and pins on his chest long before Paulina accepted her first ribbon. He'd not talked either, amazingly.

Suprising both Manson, Foley and half the student body, Danny'd made it all day as well. His whiteboard had gone from that brand-new white to a dirty light grey, and he'd had to get a new marker twice from usage, but he'd made it.

Dash remained expressionless when Danny flinched. "I hear you're supporting gay rights, Fenton."

The black-haired teen raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

"You know any gays?"

A shrug, which was his usual way of saying 'yes and no'.

"Who?"

He'd looked away then, fidgeting against the locker, and blushing slightly.

"You?"

A slightly deeper blush, then a tiny nod and a slight wince in expectation.

"Huh. Know any others?"

Slight surprise, but a shake of his head - no.

"Actually, you do."

A raised eyebrow, and a confused expression.

"Yep. You do."

An apprehensive look - the boy probably wanted to know who, but didn't want to ask and couldn't anyway.

"Yeah. You're lookin' at him."

Clear, untainted surprise, and then Danny was biting his lip as if unsure about something.

Dash raised an eyebrow when Danny's hands gently pressed against his chest - he did what the boy wanted, and backed up.

The teen simply turned around and opened the locker again, digging around on the top shelf and pulling his hand back wtih a piece of paper folded up in it. He stared at it for a long moment, biting his lip again. Dash had learned early on that, as much as Foley couldn't shut up about his technology, Danny always bit his lip when he was trying to make a decision. It was really rather cute, too, which Dash had also learned early on.

Slowly turning around, Danny hesitantly held out the paper.

Dash raised an eyebrow, but took it anyway. He went to put it in his pocket, but Danny started making motions with his hands, like moving them side to side in front of his chest like a DJ. He stopped and stared at the boy, who also stopped, and then went to put the paper back in his pocket.

That only succeeded in making Danny do the same motions more frantically. Dash stopped again, as did Danny, then pulled the paper _from_ his pocket instead of trying to put it in.

Danny's motions became more frantic, palms together and then moving one side of your hands away. Like the motion you do when you're pantomining reading a book, really. He pointed to the paper, did the motion again, then pointed at Dash.

Dash got it this time, and unfolded the paper.

_Dash -_

_I know you're probably not gonna like what you're about to read, but there's not really anything I can do about that. You like what you like, and I like what I like . . . whoa, talk about irony . . ._

_If I did this right, it should be the Day of Silence. You know, that day where, if you support gay rights, you wear black and have those little ribbons and everything. If you _really_ support gay rights, you take a vow of silence for a day. As you really should already know, I've done those three things. All-black, ribbon, vow of silence and all._

_Now, I'm going to tell you _why_._

_I'm gay. Straight and simple, there's no getting around it. I'm gay, and that's that. Can't change who I am, as much as you can't change that you beat me up almost daily. That's a real kicker, isn't it? Oh, God loves irony . . ._

_Before you beat me up, I just want to explain why I'm telling _you_ I'm gay. You'd think I'm just setting myself up for a beating - I probably am. But the reason why I'm telling you and not Tucker or Sam . . . well, you're kinda the reason why I'm gay. I've kinda sorta maybe fallen for you. It's cheesy, and corny, and totally overrated and cliched, but I think I might love you._

_You're free to beat me up now if you want - I just wanted to let you know before I got all suicidal or something._

_Thanks, I guess._

_- Danny_

Dash finished the letter, staring at it for a long moment. This whole time Dash had been following Danny for a crush, Danny had his own crush on _him_?! On the same guy who, to be downright honest with himself, mercilessly beat him up nearly every day? _Danny_, the object of his latest dreams (don't ask), liked _him_?!

He tore his gaze from the paper, meeting the worried sky-blue eyes belonging to Danny.

"Is this . . . are you joking?" He asked hesitantly, his own surprise and apprehension adding a slight undertone to the words.

Danny flinched, but recovered quickly and shook his head so much that his hair flew all over the place and Dash worried he might get dizzy - a definite no.

"You know . . . they say that we hurt the ones we love the most . . ." Dash stumbled over his own confession, dropping his gaze so he wouldn't have to face those damned seemingly-all-knowing eyes or that face. "I used to think that was such a stupid line . . . until it began to apply to my own life."

"I guess that . . . I think . . . what I'm trying to say is . . . oh . . . IthinkIloveyoutooDanny!" he finally blurted, forcing himself to meet Danny's eyes.

The boy was obviously confused - Dash had blurted it too fast, and after all his awkward pauses it had been too quick a change of speed. He'd totally missed it, and it had just flown right past him.

Dash chuckled nervously. "That didn't go the way I planned it . . . here, gimme a pencil - I don't think I could say it again if I tried."

Danny had raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly as if vaguely amused, but obeyed and handed him a pencil.

Turning Danny's confession note over, Dash scrawled out _I think I might love you, too_ and then thrust it in Danny's face.

The boy gave him another raised eyebrow - what was that, the fourth? He'd have to get Danny to teach him how to do that; it was a really effective way of delivering emotions that didn't really have a name. Slowly, his gaze traveled down to the paper, and his eyes widened as he read Dash's note over and over and over again.

Then, yet another surprise for the day - Danny looked up at him, and _beamed_.

Dash took that as his cue.

He stepped forwards, and of course Danny subconsiously stepped away. Dash continued to advance, until the boy's back was pressed against his locker yet again. Danny looked up at him with those blue eyes, confused and slightly apprehensive.

Dash moved forwards once more - his body just lightly touching Danny's. A slow, soft smile, and then he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy's lithe waist. Danny didn't move his eyes from Dash's, even as Dash slowly lowered his face towards his.

He paused an inch from Danny, their noses slightly touching, and smiled again.

"Love you, Danny."

Then, he gently kissed the boy.

The biggest surprise for the day was that Danny _kissed back_ after a moment, and his hands rested gently on the jock's shoulders.

When Dash pulled away, Danny smiled up at him.

In a voice slightly hoarse from lack of use over the day - "Love you too, Dash."

**A/N: There's a pic on DeviantArt now that goes with this story. Credit, of course, goes to shadowspirit13 and onlyseenindarkness13 for it, of course. Link below, if you wanna check it out! Just delete spaces, 'kay.**

http / onlyseenindarkness13 . deviantart . com / art / The-End-to-a-Day-of-Silence - 88945638

**Thank you again, shadowspirit13/ onlyseenindarkness13 !**


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